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I don't get Tsukiyp. How can he be LG and be a god of darkness and mandess? He seems like an oxymoron.
On the surface he just seems like an attempt to get the darkness and madness domains under a good aligned deity.
What am i missing. What niche does he fill?
How does he fit into Tien Xia culture and mythology?
Thanks.
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Darkness and madness are not, in and of themselves, evil.
Darkness soothes. Darkness brings with it rest. Darkness ushers in dreams. Darkness shields forms of life that could not survive long in the light.
Madness can be inspiration. Madness can be the rejection of reason when reason stands in the way of what is right(a bit of the Gurren Lagann philosophy). Madness can be an embracing of the many contradictory elements of both our nature and the universes, and recognizing them as beautiful rather than something to be denied. Madness can enable the discovery of hidden wonder and hope.
Tsukiyo and Shizuru complete each other. They're a sort of yin and yang. They represent a balance of light and darkness. They are the sun and moon acting together to keep the natural order going.
Useful tropes:
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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He's the Prince of the Moon. The moon is an embodiment of celestial order (Lawful), and yet at the same time it inspires lunacy (madness).
As to why he's Good? Why not? There's nothing inherently evil about the darkness, or nighttime. Night brings rest, which gives man succor from the hardships of the day.
They gave him darkness because they made a moon subdomain which fits him and madness because of the association between the moon and insanity. It's a tangential connection.
Specifically he is not a God of Madness or Darkness but the God of the Moon, Spirits, and Jade. Look at his portfolio first.
Creative Director
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That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
In any case, we often assign non-inutitive aspects to deities—this is a great way to make them feel unusual and interesting and imply unique storylines to them when we don't have much more than a few sentences to initially say much more about them. Other examples we've done in the Inner Sea's core deities would include:
- Giving the goddess of art and love the glaive as a favored weapon.
- Making the goddess of death not evil, and also at the same time the goddess of birth.
- Giving the god of cities and merchants the Earth domain.
And so on.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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What? There's a good god with darkness and madness? I'm ridiculously excited, right now and must check this book out...
However:
That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
How would this work in an open play campaign like PFS? To my knowledge, practically no deity gets any "alternate" stuff. They have to go with what's written. Any advice?
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Contributor
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Though the Moon is changeable, he is also extremely predictable in his phases...
Intoxication is associated with the moon (Soma in South Asia - a fermented hallucinogenic drink (and thus the name of Mr. Jacobs' homebrew moon, Somal)) - and there is a lot of evidence that the phase of the moon influences human night-time behavior, good and bad. The Soma of the Moon, however, is used for ritual, not for casual misbehavior.
But the full moon is a bright watchman as well, and might be said to discourage malefactors in full wax. It's the New Moon that's dangerous.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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How would this work in an open play campaign like PFS? To my knowledge, practically no deity gets any "alternate" stuff. They have to go with what's written. Any advice?That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
Run the character under the currently-legal rules and just don't use that ability if it's a problem for you. Maybe we'll expand upon the published material for Tsukiyo at some point to provide alternatives for characters playing clerics of his.
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I don't get Tsukiyp. How can he be LG and be a god of darkness and mandess? He seems like an oxymoron.
On the surface he just seems like an attempt to get the darkness and madness domains under a good aligned deity.
What am i missing. What niche does he fill?
How does he fit into Tien Xia culture and mythology?
Thanks.
Madness can be lawful. Check out chaos string theory sometime. Its an interesting phenomenon to wrap your brain around, but even the rules of random generation still abide by a set of universal laws.
Of course it would take a mortal a lifetime of philosophical pursuit to even hope to comprehend the smallest bit of the inherent truths behind the chaos (i.e.madness) of the universe. A god, on the other hand, has time on its side.
Hmm.. Sounds like a good background for a samsaran mystic. I'll add it to my ever growing list of characters i wish i had time to play! :)
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Run the character under the currently-legal rules and just don't use that ability if it's a problem for you. Maybe we'll expand upon the published material for Tsukiyo at some point to provide alternatives for characters playing clerics of his.How would this work in an open play campaign like PFS? To my knowledge, practically no deity gets any "alternate" stuff. They have to go with what's written. Any advice?That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
I will likely do so. Thank you for the advice.
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Tsukiyo and Shizuru complete each other. They're a sort of yin and yang. They represent a balance of light and darkness. They are the sun and moon acting together to keep the natural order going.
I'm rather pleased that association of darkness, cold, passivity, evil and the feminine, and good, warmth, light, activity and masculinity being the other side of the coin doesn't exist here.
By making the 'dark' god non-evil and masculine, that whole 'girly stuff is bad / manly stuff is awesome' trope gets thrown out the window.
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Creative Director
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What? There's a good god with darkness and madness? I'm ridiculously excited, right now and must check this book out...
However:
How would this work in an open play campaign like PFS? To my knowledge, practically no deity gets any "alternate" stuff. They have to go with what's written. Any advice?That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
Go with what's written. Or don't play characters that have illogical parts that might bother you. (My take—the further beyond the core assumptions you go with a character in a Massively Multiplayer Offline game like PFS, the more you'll just have to accept that some choices aren't going to work and/or aren't going to be available.)
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Letting Darkness domain shadows work like a shadowdancer's shadow companion could be a quick and easy fix.
I'm rather pleased that association of darkness, cold, passivity, evil and the feminine, and good, warmth, light, activity and masculinity being the other side of the coin doesn't exist here.
By making the 'dark' god non-evil and masculine, that whole 'girly stuff is bad / manly stuff is awesome' trope gets thrown out the window.
That never completely clicked in my head until just now, but that is a nice turn on the usual arrangement they've got going there. Shizuru does come across as the harder, straight-forward martial type while Tsukiyo seems to be the softer, more esoteric artistic soul. Relatively speaking and all that.
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That all said... the Darkness domain is one of those domains that, unfortunately, has a small element in it that makes it skew a bit too much toward evil.
Just as I've suggested that clerics of Pharasma change their domain details a bit... if you have a cleric of Tsukiyo who takes the darkness domain, it's probably a good idea to adjust his 5th level spell of summon monster V (summons 1d3 shadows) so that it summons something else—something not evil but still darkness-related.
In any case, we often assign non-inutitive aspects to deities—this is a great way to make them feel unusual and interesting and imply unique storylines to them when we don't have much more than a few sentences to initially say much more about them. Other examples we've done in the Inner Sea's core deities would include:
- Giving the goddess of art and love the glaive as a favored weapon.
- Making the goddess of death not evil, and also at the same time the goddess of birth.
- Giving the god of cities and merchants the Earth domain.
And so on.
Thank you all for taking the time to answer my questions. And James thank you for taking the time as well.
Ok i can go with that....assigning non intuitive aspects to deities is a way to get the imagination going, rather then ho hum here is another god of evil and darkness. That's much better then, I want the abilities of the Darkness and madness domain, so I'm just going to cobble together a god with the domains i want, and call him LG....or whatever.
again thanks for all your posts